Team will be ready to fight for three points, says Carles Cuadrat before Hyderabad game

Carles Cuadrat also shared his views on East Bengal’s tight ISL schedule in February.

East Bengal will be eager to end a six-match winless streak in the Indian Super League (ISL) when they travel to face a struggling Hyderabad FC side at the Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad on Saturday. Having lost their last two games, the Red & Gold Brigade are in desperate need of a win to reignite their ISL playoffs ambitions.

Cuadrat praises East Bengal’s swift transfer activity

Just before the Hyderabad FC game, East Bengal revealed that Jose Pardo has been replaced due to an injury with new signing – Serbian defender Aleksandar Pantic. Carles Cuadrat praised the club for working quickly to ensure this, as he said: “This signing means the club is operating very well. We have an injury and we’ve found a replacement very fast. It’s the same as when Jordan Elsey suffered a long injury and was replaced quickly with Hijazi Maher. This means that even having a crazy calendar, with matches every three days, Emami and the club shows how good we are working together trying to find solutions to keep being competitive. I’m very disappointed about Pardo’s injury as he was helping us a lot. But this is top-level of football, we have to try to be 6 foreigners ready for our team in the rest of the competition and get to the playoffs.

“Fortunately we are working very well with Technical Director Amoy Goshal. He was champion in one club (Chennaiyin) and now he is champion again (with East Bengal). As myself before with BFC and now with EB. Believe, there is not casualties in that. You can have luck one time, but no two. We all work very hard in the club, scouting lots of players and two days ago we found this player (Pantic) was available. He played in Cyprus league and I was there two seasons ago. I talked to him about the project and he’ll be ready to come once he gets the visa. He’ll try to help the team, as well as Victor Vazquez and Felicio Brown. Three new foreigners contingent to arrenge unexpected situations. There’s a saying in football that you have one situation and suddenly everything change. But I’m happy that the club showed how well prepared we are to try to solve situations, more during this crucial part of the season,” he added.

Approach for Hyderabad clash and how East Bengal can bounce back

When asked about his side’s approach for the upcoming clash against Hyderabad, Cuadrat said: “We know that we have to win to be in the contention of the playoffs. Everyone is very focused. We have two important players out, Nunga and Mahesh. But at least we will have four foreigners, which means the team will be ready to fight for the three points.”

The Spaniard is disappointed with recent results but has urged his team to show the similar determination to regain their form as they did after losing games last season. He explained: “As I always say, we can’t look for excuses. I think we have had to change a lot of players to play against Mumbai City in the last match, we played with more Indian players and less foreigners and we lost the game only with one difference, which means that you can score with any action that happens in a football match. We can’t find excuses that Khabra is out or foreigners are injured. We know Indian football is the way it is, of course with four foreigners we will be more competitive than the two from the last game. We’re taking care of the players and are ready for the upcoming game with some rested players and four foreigners.”

“At this moment of the situation, it’s like when we have had phases when we conceded goals and points against Bengaluru, FC Goa and Kerala Blasters – it was a moment that we struggled a little bit and then we asked ourselves to change things in the team and be ready for the next battles. It’s quite similar now, we had a successful January when we became champions after such a long time and then a lot changed suddenly in the team so now it’s a moment to go back to the basics and work for the last nine games of the competition with the right approach to get more points and secure the sixth spot. We know that there are six teams fighting for that, so we can’t say much of this,” he added.

Reflections on ISL playoffs race

Carles Cuadrat doesn’t believe that there are any favourites to secure that sixth place among the four teams competing for it. He said: “There is no favourite among these teams right now, I think one or two wins can take you to a small advantage stage but two losses can bring you back to a minor state. We’ve told the players that we don’t have to go to that bad mind state, we need to understand the situation. We must welcome the new players, hel them to adapt, and make them understand about Indian football and what we need from them to be competitive in the next month and a half when we’ll try to see how we can reach playoffs.”

When asked about how many points East Bengal need to secure that playoffs spot, the mentor stated: “I don’t want to talk about final points numbers because the thing is that a lot of draws can makes things different. Every game is a final for the contenders, Punjab got two victories and start to dream. And suddenly the two victories are for Jamshedpur and now are them the ones dreaming. Every game becomes a final. Every game will be stressful, so it’s not about a determined number of points but more about who secures the most number of victories and the superior goal difference – it will be decided upon this.”

Do East Bengal lack consistent Indian forwards?

Carles Cuadrat was questioned on his Indian attacking players lacking consistency in goal contributions this season. He mentioned: “In football the way to analyze wingers and No.9s, forward players, everyone feels that it’s only about goals or assists and otherwise they had a bad day. But only big monsters like Messi and Ronaldo scoring 50 goals every season were getting numbers every match.

“I belong to Barcelona culture and now he is being criticizing Robert Lewandowski, a top player who always gets wonderful results but just because he didn’t score for two games, it’s like the end of his career for him. Lewandowski! I’m working very well with my players. I’m glad to have different options in the attack be it Vishnu, Sayan, Mahesh or Nandha. We are building for the future and trying to get the performances. Everyone is doing their job well.”

Thoughts on packed ISL schedule

Finally, the Spaniard also bemoaned the peculiar ISL schedule for East Bengal this season after they’ve been forced to play seven games in February. He said: “It’s becoming ridiculous. That kind of calendar in indian football, you have to trust and expect one day it’ll change. A lot of things happen behind the scenes.  We request things and are not happening by unprofessionalism and bad direction. For one side, they gave a calendar for the first half of the league where every team plays 11 games, but they just gave the calendar and asked us to postpone two of the games for after Christmas.

“So you have weeks to prepare the calendar, and finally you give a schedule of 11 games and ask the club to postpone the games against Mohun Bagan and FC Goa. That is ridiculous, but have to accept it. Also we have to accept the suspension of one player (Souvik) for two games in a row in ISL, when it has been five games in the middle (Super Cup) to punish him before. And to play now seven games in one month (February) so one injury (we got two) or suspension (we got three) bring big consequences. Room to improve for indian football,” he concluded.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.